Simple URL fetcher in C using libcurl, can be used as a replacement for curl, if you only use it to download files.

fetch.c

/* compile with cc `pkg-config --cflags --libs libcurl fetch.c -o fetch` */
/* by http://suragu.net, licensed under the public domain. */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <getopt.h>
#include <curl/curl.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <string.h>

struct __options
{
	bool verbose;
	bool quiet;
	char *output;
};

struct __options options;

void
init_options(struct __options *options)
{
	options->output = NULL;
	options->quiet = 1;
	options->verbose = 0;

	return;
}

int
download_url(char *url, char *dest_file)
{
	CURL *handle = curl_easy_init();
	if(handle == NULL) {
		fprintf(stderr, "Error creating CURL handle\n");
	}

	curl_easy_setopt(handle, CURLOPT_URL, url);
	if(!strcmp("-", dest_file)) {
		curl_easy_setopt(handle, CURLOPT_WRITEDATA, stdout);
	} else {
		FILE *fp = fopen(dest_file, "w+");
		if(fp == NULL) {
			fprintf(stderr, "Error opening file: %s\n", strerror(errno));
			return -1;
		}
		curl_easy_setopt(handle, CURLOPT_WRITEDATA, fp);
	}
	if(options.verbose) {
		printf("Fetching URL: %s\n",url);
	}

	int res = curl_easy_perform(handle);
	if(res != CURLE_OK) {
		fprintf(
			stderr, "Error during request: %s\n", curl_easy_strerror(res));
		curl_easy_cleanup(handle);
		return -1;
	}
	curl_easy_cleanup(handle);
	if(options.verbose) {
		printf("Done, saved to %s\n",dest_file);
	}

	return 0;
}

void
usage(void)
{
	printf("USAGE: fetch [-q|-v] -o [FILE] URL\n");

	return;
}

int
main(int argc, char **argv)
{

	/* Init the options */
	init_options(&options);

	/* USAGE */

	if(argc <= 1) {
		usage();
		return -1;
	} 
	
	/* Process arguments */
	int c;
	options.output = "generic_file";
	while((c = getopt(argc, argv, "vo:q")) != -1) {
		switch(c) {
			case 'v':
				options.verbose = true;
				options.quiet = false;
				break;
			case 'q':
				options.quiet = true;
				options.verbose = false;
				break;
			case 'o':
				options.output = optarg;
				break;
		}
	}
	download_url(argv[argc - 1], options.output);

	return 0;
}